Projects Oh no not another Willys Gasser build, this time a Willys shop truck

Not much but any progress is better than none I guess, I had some duplicate gauges kicking around so though I would put some in the firewall, Didn't want them flush fitted as that would look a bit boring so spun up a couple of rings out of a bit of thick wall aluminium tube to stand the gauges off slightly, a bit of aluminium sheet and an hours work and this is what I ended up with

 

Creative, well thought out, excellent execution and very useful as usual!

 

Last night I decided to fit the other gauge panel on the opposite side but realised I had screwed up !!! I completely forgot that the brake servo was right behind the panel Well i always say its not how you screw up but how you get out of it that counts
Easy answer was to make the gauge spacers a bit longer, the first ones were 1/2" so a bit more of the tube was turned and this time the spacers are 1.125" long, Funny but now they are on I think the longer ones look better.












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Thanks bud

 

Been working on another project last few days but kept thinking something was missing on my firewall gauges, then I had an eureka moment and it came to me in a flash They needed a frame to set them off, so over the weekend I plasmaed some more aluminium, i'm happy now







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Still on light duties so I got to thinking about glueing the door skins in place, until I realised I hadn't fully finished the outside door handle mechanism whoops !!!
A simple plate is laminated to the inside of the door skin, its fitted with a pair of rivnuts for the handle to screw too and a holder for the outer cable, The cables are stainless steel bicycle brake cables which are more than up to the job and are cheap !!!









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nice work, Steve! i would have worked a whole winter on that thing

 

Thanks dude

 

Not had chance to do much on this recently but I had some vapour blasting to get done on a customers car so thought I would get the inlet finished up, the blower plate supports needed welding on to the intake and I just knew it was gonna be a pig job so popped into Garys to see if he had any good ideas on approaching welding the poor casting, It didn't go well at all as just kept getting black crap coming out of the casting and the welds were not the prettiest so ended up smoothing them out.








Here's the intake finished








Before the plenum was fitted I needed a gasket so cut one from some Reinze boiler door gasket material.








Here's the intake bolted up












I also got the gauge spacers vapoured as well




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Looks good Langy! What does vapoured mean in USA lingo?

 

Vapour blasting is glass bead suspended in liquid bud which lubricate it, doesnt damage the surface at all, , it leaves a very durable finish as it peens the surface pores up which means it don't hold dirt so well and therefore much easier to keep clean.

 

This explains it well http://www.goodwoodvapourblasting.co.uk/how-it-works/

 

Shouldn't you be helping Sue pack instead of playing in the garage ! Looks like we will get to see you both Friday night at Pinchers. Have a safe trip.

Don

 

Hahaha no mate I would only get in the way !!! Yeah looking forward to seeing you guys, see ya Friday it will be a blast.

 

Thanks langy! Looks like a great cleaning and metal finishing process.

 

Anybody know if someone in the states is doing this process? Says its good for magnesium and I have some neglected 12 spokes that need cleaned up. Looks like it may save some time before hitting it with the polish.

 

Rotten yes it's excellent for magnesium and a good idea for preparing for polishing, I think you guys call it Aqua blasting

 

Pretty slick blower intake you made....Well thought out and executed perfectly.

 

Thanks Pete, it should work fine

 

Just a small update, sorry it's late but I find myself looking on here less and less these days.
Not much I'm afraid as I'm at the arduous & tedious body work stage.
I wasn't entirely happy with the bolts at the front of the intake so changed them for studs & castle nuts, I machined in a pilot on the studs as it makes the nuts easy to start and has a nice finished look to them.










While I was there I fitted a direct temp gauge into the water runner, it's tight on clearance but fits snugly.











I also bought a Fenton fuel block back from the states which matches the Fenton intake nicely, fitted it with brass fittings to match the rest of the hardware on the truck, it sits on the firewall behind the blower which made the Marshall pressure gauge hard to see so a quick rummage through my spare fittings box and I found a 45 degree elbow, now it just pokes out from behind the blower and can be seen easily.











I didn't want to use modern jubilee clips on this build and really liked the look of Wittek thumb screw tower clamps as they look old and dead cool but they were really difficult to find but luckily somebody I know in the US put me onto someone that collects them (yes a very interesting old chap) and while on holiday I paid him a visit, unbelievable !!! He had tens of thousands of them !!! No cars just Wittek clamps !!!
After a bit of persuasion he said he would sell me some as long as I was putting them on an old car, I showed him a pic of my truck and everything was cool , I didn't mention it was fibreglass.
They are all stainless and hopefully I've got all the sizes I need.

 

Nice detail work as usual Langy. I like the studs and castle nuts, really adds to the direction the engine compartment is going.
After reading your comment about the thumb screw clamps it got me thinking about other people who have searched for these too. I wonder if it would be worthwhile for some hose clamp manufacturing company to introduce a line of thumb screw clamps to their product lineup.

 

I'm guessing without the original tooling it might not be cost effective bud.
Thanks for the comments

 

Langy, great work and keep the updates coming! This is one of my favorite threads.

 

Thanks buddy

 

Not much in the way of progress as still straightening out the cab, it's getting there though
need to have a break from it now and again so looked for something to make, I needed a coolant over flow bottle, yeah I know I could of bought one but I wanted something different So I found a bit of 80mm thick walled tube and cut it into 2 pieces, then onto the lathe to lose some weight and get it down to 1/16" wall, the first piece was turned on the outside and the 2nd piece was bored out till one slid nicely into the



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Next some 2.5" holes were bored and some of the holes elongated.





[img width=900 height=1200]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h229/stevelangylang/Willys%20Gasser%20Shop%20Truck/AFD5892F-DC2D-4D88-B715-152917BFD9B4_zpsxrdbbhuo.jpg[/img]

[img width=900 height=1200]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h229/stevelangylang/Willys%20Gasser%20Shop%20Truck/AB8A355C-E0AA-45EB-9FBF-29E7CE65AA48_zps5wftodoc.jpg[/img]




A top was turned up and next I turned a bung for the top, this was welded on and blended & fettled to become one piece. Then a base was turned up and it was all ready for welding.





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Here are its all welded together and the welds smoothed out.








I found found a neat little drain valve from a Hawker Hunter aircraft so welded in a bung in the base and threaded it to suit.










I welded a tab on and as the drain valve was drilled for wire locking I wire locked it to the tab.








The top was tapped for a 3/8" brass pipe fitting which has a bit of copper pipe going up to the rad cap, I added a mounting bracket and here's the finished tank ready to be vapour blasted.





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[img width=900 height=1200]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h229/stevelangylang/Willys%20Gasser%20Shop%20Truck/649B40BF-305D-4BA5-AC80-43A61C14DCC4_zpstzpiaide.jpg[/img]

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Glad to see you and Sue made it home in one piece, especially after your encounter with the alligators. Dan, Don, and I just finished off the left over cider from your visit. You should come more often.

It was nice spending time with both of you, say hello to your pretty lady for me.

Don

 

There you go again....Take a piece most people would just buy and install and instead make a work of art !

 

Looking forward to coming back Don, great to catch with you guys.

 

You wouldn't want me to do ordinary would you, hahaha

 

Excellent work as usual. I've not looked at this site for a while but I'm dog sitting tonight due to the fireworks. (Guy Fawkes Day / Bonfire Night here in the UK). I would not use red coloured plastic for the side windows as you will not be able to distinguish red lights, tail lamps or stop lamps, as with coloured sunglasses, with today's traffic you need to give yourself every possible chance.